Q 1) Do you plan on making another version of The Sims Transmogrifier? If so, what might be some changes/additions?
A 1)Transmogrifier now it does everything it was originally specified to do, and then some. So in that sense it's complete. But I hope to make updates to Transmogrifier occasionally, fixing bugs and adding new features, when I have the time.

Q 2) In the current version of TMOG(1.1) when you export an object there's a check box that says "Just Change Colors", what exactly does this do?
A 2)That's the way to tell Transmogrifier that you don't want to change the shape of the sprite, just the colors. It simplifies the process, because it doesn't have to export and import the z buffers and alpha channels. If you want to change the shape of the sprite, don't check that box, and you will have more options for automatically generating or exporting all z buffers and alpha channels. Changing the shape of a sprite is complicated and requires a lot more work, so I added the checkbox to make it easier for the many people who were just changing colors and repainting. The wording is awkward and not very clear, maybe it should be something like "Recoloring, but not changing shape."
0) The "Compress Bitmap Files" and "Create Sub Directories" checkboxes are always enabled no matter what mode or other options you've selected. If your paint program has a problem reading the files that Transmogrifier exports, try un-checking "Compress Bitmap Files" and try again -- it will take more disk space but won't confuse buggy programs (like the Microsoft bitmap editor). If you would rather have all the sprite image files in one directory instead of sub-directories for every sprite, un-check the "Create Sub Directories" checkbox.
1) When you check "Just Change Colors", the first two modes are enabled and their description changes, and the other two modes are disabled. You can select between two modes: "One Zoom, One Channel" and "All Zooms, One Channel".
1.1) When just changing colors, the first mode "One Zoom, One Channel" exports the largest scale zoom for you to edit. It automatically generates the smaller scale zooms from your large zoom, when you import it back in. It preserves the Z buffers and Alpha channels of the image, so they don't change, and it does not export them so you don't have to worry about them. The background you paint in the color image it exports does not matter, since everything outside the original shape is ignored.
The resulting object will be good quality, but not as good as if you exported it with all zooms and fussed over the pixels of the small zooms yourself. But this mode does save a lot of effort, and the quality of the small zooms is much better than it used to be. You can un-check the box labeled "Smooth Small Zoom Colors" to revert back to the old zoom shrinking code used by the old version of Transmogrifier, which looks kind of chunky. The new code does a lot better job than the old code, so for most objects the automatically generated zooms should be sufficient, unless you have lots of time to be picky about every pixel. The "Smooth Small Zoom Edges", "Far Z Buffer" and "Soft Alpha Channel" checkboxes are disabled because they don't apply.
1.2) When just changing colors, the second mode "All Zooms, One Channel" exports all three zooms for you to edit. This gives you total control over how the small zooms look, but it creates more images and takes more work. The "Smooth Small Zoom Colors", "Smooth Small Zoom Edges", "Far Z Buffer" and "Soft Alpha Channel" check boxes are disabled because they don't apply.
2) When you un-check "Just Change Colors", all four modes are enabled and the description of the first two modes changes. You can select between four modes: "One Zoom, One Channel", "All Zooms, One Channel", "One Zoom, All Channels", and "All Zooms, All Channels".
2.1) When not just changing colors, the first mode "One Zoom, One Channel" exports the largest zoom for you to edit, and automatically generates the smaller scale zooms from your large zoom, just like when you're just changing colors. However, it also automatically generates the z buffers and alpha channels for all zooms from the color images of the large zooms, instead of preserving the ones in the object file. The shape of the new sprite is defined by the background color of the color images, and it gets the background color from the top left corner of each color image. The problem with this mode is that the automatically generated Z buffers and Alpha channels are low quality, compared to the originals. The automatically generated Alpha channels can soften the edges of the objects, which does not work well with multi-tile objects, which have to fit together neatly with sharp edges. The automatically generated Z buffers are cut out of a template z buffer image of a concave or convex cube, which does not reflect the true shape of the object. The "Smooth Small Zoom Colors" checkbox lets you select between the old chunky zoom shrinking code (unchecked) and the new smooth code (checked). The "Smooth Small Zoom Edges" checkbox lets you to antialias the edges of the automatically generated small zooms (checked) or not (unchecked). The "Far Z Buffer" checkbox lets you select the depth of the automatically generated z buffer, either a concave box that doesn't obscure objects on the same tile (checked on for "Object in Back"), or a convex box that does obscure objects on the same tile (unchecked off for "Object in Front". The "Soft Alpha Channel" checkbox lets you choose to antialias the edges in the automatically alpha channel (on for "Smooth edges") or not (off for "Sharp edges").
2.2) When not just changing colors, the second mode "All Zooms, One Channel" exports all the zooms for you to edit, and automatically generates the Z buffers and Alpha channels for you, which are low quality as described above. The shape of the new object is defined by the background color of the color images, and it gets the background color from the top left corner of each color image. The "Smooth Small Zoom Colors" and "Smooth Small Zoom Edges" checkboxes are disabled because they don't apply, but the "Far Z Buffer" and "Soft Alpha Channel" checkboxes are enabled and work as described above.
2.3) When not just changing colors, the third mode "One Zoom, All Channels" exports the largest zoom for you to edit, as well as the Z buffers and Alpha channels of the largest zoom. It automatically generates the smaller zooms (including their Z buffers and Alpha channels) from the larger zooms that you edit. The shape of the object is defined by the Z buffer (not the Alpha channel), and the background of the color image that is clipped by the Z buffer is ignored. This mode results in good quality objects, and gives you complete control of their shape and transparency with the Z buffer and Alpha channels, that you can edit. The "Smooth Small Zoom Colors" and "Smooth Small Zoom Edges" checkboxes work as described above, and the "Far Z Buffer" and "Soft Alpha Channel" checkboxes are disabled because they don't apply.
2.4) When not just changing colors, the fourth mode "All Zooms, All Channels" exports all the zooms for you to edit, as well as all the Z buffers and Alpha channels of each zoom. This results in a whole lot of files, but it gives you the most control over the object appearance at every zoom. The "Smooth Small Zoom Colors", "Smooth Small Zoom Edges", "Far Z Buffer" and "Soft Alpha Channel" checkboxes are disabled because they don't apply.

Q 3.) What do you think of Blue Print?
A 3)I totally support it and think it's a great ambitious project for Bill Simser to work on, and nice of him to give it away for free. When he originally started designing it, he had no way of knowing how complex and arbitrary the internal data structures in The Sims really were, so it's reasonable for him to scale it back and break it down into solvable problems. Over several years at Maxis we developed our own special purpose tools and languages that fit together to create and program objects, which share much internal code with The Sims, and depend on other high powered tools like 3D Studio Max, a big database, a source code control system, lots of special file formats and utility programs, etc. Basically, the game was not originally designed to have objects created in any other way than with the original tools, which are extremely complex and tightly integrated with the game. So programs like Blueprint and Transmogrifier are fighting an uphill battle against the essential problem that they're trying to do something that wasn't in the original game plan, and they can't change that design, so they just have to cope with the way things are. One of the best examples of what I mean is multi-tile objects, they way they're broken up into a bunch of different sprites and objects, one for each tile. Ugh. It requires lots of really quirky special purpose code and a complex 3D Studio max plug-in to create multi tile objects, and it's far too late to simplify how they work, let alone figure out what's really going on by reverse engineering without the source code. Even with the source code, it was not trivial to support them with Transmogrifier, and you still have to deal with all those broken up separate sprites. A major league rat hole, but that's how it is. When Will and I worked out the specification for Transmogrifier, we purposefully limited the scope to attacking a simple problem we were sure could be solved well: importing and exporting the 2D bitmaps. No 3D graphics, not even a 2D image editor, just standard control panel dialogs and a preview window -- it's not trying to be 3D Studio Max or Photoshop. Even with that limited scope, writing Transmogrifier was only possible becau se I had the source code for the game and tools to work with (and have been working with the code for more than 3 years).

Q 4.) In TMOG 1.1 the XML file has the comfort, hunger, etc. ratings if those are changed does it edit the behavior of a sim?
A 4)Unfortunately, those numbers only show up in the pop-up catalog entry, but don't effect the behavior of the game. That kind of stuff has to be programmed in Edith, since it's controlled by code instead of parameters you can tweak. I've raised the idea of creating special generic template objects designed for people to clone and customize, that break out some of their configurable behaviors as parameters that Transmogrifier can recognize and let you edit. Something like that might happen in the future, but not yet.

Q 5.) Did you expect your creation(TMOG) to become such a hit?
A 5)I thought there would be lots of interest, but I didn't have any idea how popular it would be and how many people would be able to master it. From the wonderful response to Maxis releasing SimShow even before The Sims shipped, I was amazed how many fantastic skins people made. I wasn't sure how successful people would be with Transmogrifier, since it requires a lot of skill and persistence. Actually, I chose the name "Transmogrifier" because it was the most intimidating but descriptive name I could think of, to scare away the faint of heart. If it's hard to use, it should be hard to spell. Now that I see how popular it is, I hope it gives people incentive to master Photoshop and other image editing programs.

Q 6.) At first did you expect people to make brand new objects with TMOG?
A 6)The definition of transmogrify is "to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect". I've read a lot of stories by Philip K Dick (especially the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch), so I meant for Transmogrifier to create things that weren't what they appeared to be on the surface. I really got a laugh out of the stereo that somebody transmogrified into a giant musical teddy bear!